Green Energy

Who benefits most from government ‘green’ policies? Usually it is the companies that produce renewable energy, not citizens or the environment. For example, 602 birds and 1,270 bats were killed by wind turbines at a single Ontario wind farm between July and December of 2009.

Aggressive carbon pricing schemes that depend upon routing taxpayer dollars to ‘green’ projects are making energy and other goods more expensive for Canada’s poorest. Canadians in provinces where these policies have been implemented are having to choose between heating their homes and buying groceries to feed their families. Some are walking away from their homes because they can no longer afford to power and heat them. This is the ‘heat or eat’ conundrum.

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Counter-Points

Counter-Point
For a generation, we have been beaten over the head with the notion that ‘greener is better’. While innovations in renewable energy have certainly been made, many of these technologies also depend, at their core, on fossil fuels – in manufacturing wind turbines, for example.
Governments (provincial and federal) provide lavish subsidies for ‘green energy’ projects, many of which fail to live up to the hype. The electricity required to charge an electric car is, for example, overwhelmingly produced with fossil fuels – usually coal. Again, our governments should be looking at the facts, not kowtowing to every ‘green’ trend that comes along.

Counter-Point Counter-Point
For too long the detriments of hydrocarbons have been measured against the so-called benefits of green energy. It is time for an honest discussion on Canada’s energy balance.
When used responsibly, hydrocarbons have the potential to eliminate more pollution-intensive forms of energy, such as the burning of dung or wood in developing areas of the globe.
Without hydrocarbons, life would be nasty, brutish and short.

Counter-point
Who benefits most from government ‘green’ policies? Usually it is the companies that produce renewable energy, not citizens or the environment. For example, 602 birds and 1,270 bats were killed by wind turbines at a single Ontario wind farm between July and December of 2009.
Aggressive carbon pricing schemes that depend upon routing taxpayer dollars to ‘green’ projects are making energy and other goods more expensive for Canada’s poorest. Canadians in provinces where these policies have been implemented are having to choose between heating their homes and buying groceries to feed their families. Some are walking away from their homes because they can no longer afford to power and heat them. This is the ‘heat or eat’ conundrum.

Counterpoint
Governments in Canada already overwhelmingly subsidize so-called “green energy” projects.
A 2017 study by Dr. Mark Milke of the Canadian Taxpayers Association found that from 2000 to 2016, 80% of business subsidies from Natural Resources Canada went to “green energy” projects. Out of $3.29 billion in subsidies, $2.61 billion of that went to renewable/green energy projects.
Of course, this corporate welfare to green companies doesn’t necessarily benefit the environment or ensure the success of green technologies. As Milke writes, “No politician or civil servant has the wisdom and foreknowledge to know which green technology or invention will thrive in the years and decades ahead. In addition, and perhaps worse, useful green innovations at one company may be hampered by taxpayer-financed competition.”

Studies

Title:​​ Generating Electricity in Canada from Wind and Sunlight Is Getting Less for More Better than Getting More for Less? Author: Pierre Desrochers, Andrew Reed Publisher: Frasier Institute Date: July 30th, 2019 Full Report Here Summary: Proponents of VRE often use a narrow framework that fails to consider its indirect consequences. Electricity

Title:​​ The Hidden Costs of Wind Electricity: Why the full cost of wind generation is unlikely to match the cost of natural gas, coal or nuclear generation Author: George Taylor, Ph.D., Thomas Tanton Publisher: American Tradition Institute: Center for Energy Studies Date: December 2012 Full Report Here Summary: In the

Title: THE “NEW ENERGY ECONOMY”: AN EXERCISE IN MAGICAL THINKING Author: Mark P. Mills Publication: Manhattan Institute Date: March 2019 Full Text Article Summary: This paper highlights the physics of energy to illustrate why there is no possibility that the world is undergoing—or can undergo—a near-term transition to a “new energy economy.

Title: Blowing Hot Air on the Wrong Target? A Critique of the Fossil Fuel Divestment Movement in Higher Education Author: Pierre Desrochers and Hiroko Shimizu Publisher: Frontier Centre for Public Policy Date: July 2016 Full Text Article Summary: By 2015, students and faculty at more than 1,000 college and university campuses across the world

Title: Corporate welfare cash: 21st century justifications and billion-dollar bills to come Author: Dr. Mark Milke Publisher: Canadian Taxpayers Federation Date: April 2017 Full Text Article Summary: This study looked at corporate welfare to energy companies and found that governments are racking up huge bills as traditional corporate welfare is shifting towards an increasing number of